Three Options For Home Stays

October 19, 1986|By YVETTE CARDOZO, Staff Writer

The best time of year for a stay in a Chinese home is spring or fall, when temperatures are not too hot or cold. Accommodations will be simple but adequate, meaning hard but comfortable beds, Western-style toilets and running water. You`ll be fed until you burst but if you want a fork, bring your own.

A typical stay is one night and, if arranged through an agency in the United States, costs $100 to $120 per day, which covers room, food, interpreter and transportation to the village.

Shandong Province pioneered the home stay program and has played host to 1,000 visitors (mostly Americans and Japanese) since 1984. Visitors can stay in three towns: Xusheng, a farming-factory town 32 miles from Jinan; Yanti, a suburb of Qingdao on the coast where you stay with a fishing family on a sampan; and Weifang, three hours by train east of Jinan where you stay in a traditional style Chinese farmhouse.